Going colonial in Macau.
Trip Start
Feb 29, 2004
1
24
33
Trip End
Nov 24, 2004
Macau,
Macau
Saturday, September 18, 2004
SHENZHEN
To make things difficult, I decided to get myself to Hong Kong in a roundabout way, taking in some interesting bits of New China. This involved flying from Beijing to Shenzhen, China's richest city; an 'economic free zone' on mainland Chinese territory just north of Hong Kong. This is where the money really gets made in China; twenty years ago this was a bunch of rice paddies, and now it's a huge boomtown with a harbour, brand new airport, huge factories and transport/storage facilities and row after row of workers apartment blocks. If you hear someone whining about his job going to India, this is where it really ends up.
Unfortunately, Shenzhen is also incredibly boring, so all I did was catch the direct 8 yuan airconditioned bus from the airport to the harbour, looking over the Pearl River delta. Shenzhen's getting there; there's a tourist office in the airport and there are even English signs saying where the bus is. There are also buses to central Hong Kong and to Shenzhen railway station from where you can zip to Hong Kong in under an hour. It's all too easy.
Shenzhen's harbour, Shekou, has direct links to Gangzhou (the industrial powerhouse city and expat metropolis of southern China), Hong Kong, Macau and Zuhai, just north of Macau. I opted for Zuhai; this is the free trade zone city stuck onto the Macau border, and which is not booming as much as Shenzhen because, well, it's stuck on to Macau where not so much is going on. On the one-hour, 15 yuan ferry ride, we were treated to views of hundreds of ships laden with containers sailing to or from around the Pearl River and an unusual amount of junk floating in the sea (everything from plastic furniture to large banana trees). The staff put on a DVD of that movie with the huge tidal wave hitting New York.
MACAU
Macau is attached to mainland China by a narrow neck of land, which has a few huge border halls built onto it (click on the red dot on the map above for a Macau close-up). Macau, like Hong Kong, was handed back to China a few years ago, but just like its British counterpart will keep its own currency, border posts and special economical and political status for another 50 years (or so was promised). On arrival in Zuhai, I hopped onto the bus to the border to get out of this part of China. Quite fitting the general theme of modern-day China, the border crossing is a shopping mall. As expected, the border guards were quite baffled to see me coming out of China with a visa that had no entry date stamp on it. But after a bit of phoning and pacing around, they gave me the nod, a new stamp, and I happily swept across the yellow line. Crossing the no-mans land between Chinese China and Macau China, I was greeted by bilingual Portuguese/Chinese signs welcoming me to Macau - how nice. The border guards gave me my stamp (valid for a 30-day stay), the tourist office handed me free maps and advice (a first in China) and I set foot in the second ex-Portuguese colony after Goa on this trip.
The first thing that blows you when you walk into Macau from China is the wall of high-rise apartment blocks that rise up immediately behind the border. Once a lush green peninsula with lots of space for rice paddies and fields, the Mecanese (that's what they're called) have completely sacrificed every nook and cranny on the tiny peninsula for housing. Built close together, the ragged and worn buildings house thousands of people per square kilometre. Then there are the scooters. Everyone here gets around on two wheels, and the combination of good weather and no space for parking, scooters and motorbikes are the preferred mode of transport.
After visiting an ATM for a handful of patacas (MOP - the mecanese currency, at ten to the euro nearly the same value as the yuan and the Hong Kong dollar), a minibus carted me off down the peninsula to my hospedaria (hotel). Interesting - they drive on the left in Macau! I wonder why... and I also wonder how the hell they will link up the road systems once Macau loses its border posts in 45 years time.
I was only planning to stay for one or two days in Macau, as most reports on the ex-colony note that it's a boring place compared to Hong Kong. But in the end I stayed longer, fascinated by the peaceful atmosphere and the wacky colonial heritage you can find all over the place.
The central square for instance, the Largo Senado, seems to be imported straight from southern Europe - a cobblestone square with black/white wavey patterns surrounded by elegant 19th century European buildings and palm trees, all lit up quite wonderfully at night. Above the old part of town, the Fortaleza do Monte fortress, with its rusting cannons subtly aimed at the horrendous new Bank of China skyscraper. Just below it, the facade of the Sao Paolo cathedral, all the remains of the huge church after a fire destroyed the rest of it. Then there's dozens of Portuguese colonial houses, villas and churches scattered between the newer highrises.
The colonial highlight is, strangely enough, the protestant cemetary next to the Jardim Luis de Camoes park. All non-Catholics who died on or near the colony were buried here. The inscriptions on the stones in this lush tropical garden are fascinating. The oldest graves are of the early Dutch industrialists, realising the potential of cheap Chinese labour hundreds of years ago:
- Ter nagedachtenis aan den Wel Edelen heer Jean Henrij Robinel, opperhoofd der Nederlandschen Factorij, te Canton in China. Geboren Deventer, den 24 December 1750, Overleden Macao den 24 maart 1816.
- Pieter Kintsius, Eerste Supercargo en Opperhoofd der Nederlandsche Oost Indische Compagnie int Rijk van China, 1786.
- Egbert van Karnebeck, Supercargo.
- Clazina van Valkenburg, geboren te Groningen, gestorven Macao 1846.
And then there are the somnetimes very young sailors and assorted characters moving through Asia. Often the gravestones are paid for by 'his mess mates':
- In memoriam: John P. Williams of Utica, State of New York, USA. Died at Macao July 25, 1857, aged 31 years. He assisted in setting up the first magnetic telegraph in Japan.
- Dem Staube des F.W. Schnitgen; nach vielen Leiden in Macao gestorben, 1807.
- Frank Scott, coroner of Malaca.
- In memory of The Pennington, apprentice boy, who died on board through the effects of a fall into the hold. Deeply regretted.
- Charles Hawkens, upset in the Ship Cutter near the island of Toon Koo when the whole of the boats crew unhappily perished.
- Charles F. Ganer, a musician of the US Frigate Brandywine. May he rest in piece. (sic)
- Luitenant Fitzgerald, died from the effects of a wound received while gallantly storming the enemy's battery at Canton, 1841.
- R.V. Wappen, murdered on board the schooner Kappa by a Chinese whilst on her way to Whampoa from Macao.
Macau consists of three parts, all within a stone's throw of mainland China; busy Macau peninsula and the two small islands of Taipa and Coloana, which have been linked together with recent land reclamations, and which are connected to Macau by two huge bridges (with a third under construction). I took the bus over to Taipa to view the surviving old fishing village, now surrounded by high apartment buildings, and the five grand colonial mansions facing a pond that was once the open sea.
Further down on Coloana, just past the go-kart racetrack and the new borderpost and bridge linking to mainland China, I got off at Coloana village, a quaint little village facing the bay. It has a church with a relic of St. Francis Xavier (his arm). Interestingly, I saw the rest of what's left of him a few months earlier, in the cathedral of Old Goa in India. Walking around the southern tip of Coloana on a quiet path through tropical vegetation, I came across some old border guard huts, built to spot any Chinese trying to swim over to Portuguese territory.
One of the great things about Macau is (surprise) the food. For the first time in months, here I was again in a milk-drinking culture. Laeterias (milkbars) are all over town, serving delicious drinks like fresh milk with ice and fruit. Then there's the local Mecanese cuisine which borrows from both Portuguese and Chinese kitchens; salted fish is an example of something you'll only find here. Also pleasant was the tourism infrastructure. No ridiculous entrance prices here, or tame groups following flags held aloft. Excellent tourist brochures, good and modern museums, multilingual signs and free entrance to some sights (unthinkable in mainland China) and friendly tourism officials.
Macau is best-known for casinos, but if you're not interested, they're easy to avoid, all being crammed into a few buildings, and full with mad rabid Chinese gamblers. Instead, I visited the maritime museum, which has interesting displays on lighthouses, sea wars., the fishermen's temples and festivals and on mussel farming. Best of all was the model of 17th-century Macau, from which I learned that the fortresses and city walls that were built all over the island were foremostly against attacks by the Dutch. Details like this make me proud.
On departing the island on the 150 pataca fast ferry to Hong Kong, I was surprised to see a chunk of Holland here: in a new entertainment complex that is under construction next to the ferry harbour, they've built a block of replica 16th-century Amsterdam houses, which look amazingly real (except for the large casino behind them, and the Spanish fortress right next to them). A fitting farewell.
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Next up: Hong Kong wedding.
Sign of the Day: 'Deeply regretted' (a gravestone commenting on the death of a young ship's apprentice boy who fell into the hold)
Currently reading: 'What am I doing here' by Bruce Chatwin.
Stomach status: Felicidad.
